While I still have a MySpace account I never log in anymore. There was too much spam to deal with. And my girlfriend got so many creepy messages that she had to delete her account.
Generally, to use MySpace much, you have to do one or more of the following:
- not value your time much
- have a lot of spare time
- be desperate to connect, and have few outlets
- be a creep sending creepy messages
- be an anonymous creep viewing profiles
- be an automated spam bot or something that phishes accounts
MySpace grew too big to keep any sort of community feel the way that Digg has. It tried appealing to too large of an audience, and now it has no value outside of tracking the latest spam offers.
If I had a viral widget idea of course I would still want to pitch that to MySpace, but generally, as an end user, I just don’t see any value to MySpace, do you?
This lack of value can also be thought of in ways that search engines may value certain types of websites that are not well integrated into communities on the web. If you spend time and money wading too deeply into those categories (or creating those types of site) you not only waste your time and money, but you also are not focusing on how to build trust and perceived value.
If it is your first site, it is awful hard to understand how to create perceived value and do the marketing well enough to be profitable before getting burned out. I think any type of site can have an editorial element bolted on to add credibility. And editorial content should be easy to add to a site if you are in tune with your marketplace and your customers.
If one channel is easier or more compelling to subscribe to than another then it is going to get more links, more attention, more readers, and win due to network effects. But if the channel gets so broad that it doesn’t stand for anything eventually it will melt down, especially as smaller niche sites that are more relevant and easier to identify with are created.
FurlBookmark Murdok:
